Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Recapping New Year's

After a long hiatus from blogging, I'm back in time to welcome the year 2008. My holidays were split between Phoenix, AZ with my parents, and Victoria, BC with my girlfriend, Kristina. Both trips were enjoyable, however the Victoria trip was my first with K, and it was so much fun! I had flown in from AZ on Thursday night, and Saturday AM, I picked K up, we drove up to Port Angeles, and hopped a ferry over to Victoria. It had been years since I'd been on a Puget Sound ferry, so it was a fun ride. Here's a pic of K about to give me the finger for being too camera-happy.
K in action on the ferry

And me looking very happy to be on a trip with her.
Me very happy!

Once we docked in Victoria and passed through customs, we headed over to our SUITE at the Victoria Regent Hotel. WOW. What a beautiful (and HUGE) room! We both felt a bit overwhelmed I guess, and like we should be hosting a huge party or something there. Anyway, we loved the room! That night we had a wonderful dinner at Luciano's, a delicious Italian place around the corner from our hotel. We enjoyed a bottle of Kettle Valley Winery's Brakeman's Select red blend. The wine is a blend of Pinot Noir, Merlot and selected other red varieties grown in vineyards located in British Columbia's Okanogen Valley. Nice and light, and the perfect compliment to our entrees. Our server suggested it, when the wine I had originally selected was out of stock. Good call! Kristina had the delicious butternut squash ravioli, and I the mushroom penne. VERY tasty, both. Here's us after dinner.
Dinner at Luciano's in Victoria
After braving the gusting wind, hail, rain, more wind, and more rain, we ended up next door to Luciano's at a place called Sauce. Very cool, and quite crowded too, with some GREAT tasting cocktails. We had several cocktails, and a shot of vodka there, before heading across the street to our hotel for the night.

The next day was spent touring around downtown Victoria and shopping. Here's K with a Canadian Fudge-selling Bear.
Fresh fudge, anyone?
Eventually, we met up with K's friends Mark & Angela, from the UK. Great couple, and SO MUCH FUN! We had a nice lunch and Caesar cocktails at Earl's Victoria. The girls decided to head over to LuLu Lemon for some yoga clothes shopping, so the boyz hopped over to the Irish pub across the street from Earl's. Many pints of Guinness were consumed over the next couple hours! Once the ladies rejoined us, it was off to our condo in "Drunken Duncan", where we were spending New Year's Eve. Our first night was spent just hanging out and talking, and of course drinking! New Year's Eve day, we visited Angela's oldest daughter, who was staying with her father. The poor girl had a BAD case of the chicken pox! I felt so sorry for her, although she was workin' it pretty good for sympathy from daddy! That night, we went to Just Jake's for dinner. Nice place, a bit small though, and our server was having a bad night. The food was great, however. I enjoyed the vegetable stir fry, and drank a couple Red Bull & Vodkas. I was going to have wine, but the ladies ended up drinking a white wine that was rather nasty. I don't even recall what it was...

After dinner, we went next door to the Craig Street Brew Pub for more drinks and some entertainment. While I wasn't impressed with the band, I was VERY impressed with my date! Here's why:
HOT HOT HOT!!!!
WOW! Way hot. I think Angela (on the left) is pretty, but Kristina absolutely blows me away! Anyway, where was I? OH! After the brew pub, we decided to go slumming at the Galaxy, which was being closed down to make way for a new...gas station? Something like that. I was expecting the worst, but it wasn't too bad. Here's the ladies pole dancing on the Galaxy sign:
Pole dancin'!
We went home soon after, and hung out for awhile before retiring. It was a very nice New Year's Eve!

The next day, we drove back into Victoria, so K and I could jump the ferry back to Port Angeles, and then make the 3-4 hour drive back to Portland. The roadtrip back was one of the best in my entire life, if not THE best! Being with K on the road was just so much fun, and so enjoyable. I can't wait to go on another roadtrip with her! Definitely one of the best New Year's I have ever experienced. Kristina, if you are reading this, I love you!